Prior to my traineeship at Eurofound I already had a strong interest in poverty and social issues, reflected both in my Bachelor's degree in Economics and Business, and my Master's studies in Economics and Finance. When I heard about Eurofound traineeships, a placement in the Social Policies Unit with the focus on the convergence specifically caught my eye – and sounded like a perfect opportunity to deepen my knowledge on quantitative research and social policies in the EU.
My main area of work during the traineeship was to contribute to the quantitative data analyses of convergence. I worked a lot with data, mainly national and regional. I contributed in the data analysis in multiple publications of convergence, but I was also involved in the other stages of the publication process, for instance data visualisation, literature search and draft editing. I can definitely say that the traineeship provided me with a great opportunity to improve my research skills. I have also been involved in a very wide range of activities connected to the analysis such as, working on the creation of the monitoring tools of convergence, in particular helping with the development of an R package and a tutorial explanation of a convergence STATA script.
I was given the freedom to work independently on my tasks and organising my own work, which I really appreciated. Eurofound provides a wonderful working environment, as the tasks are very interesting and intellectually challenging. Moreover, I was treated as a full member of the research team and the wider Eurofound community in a positive and friendly work atmosphere. Overall, the traineeship is a valuable experience in working for the EU, and it has provided me with new tools and more policy knowledge so I would warmly recommend it to anyone who loves research on social topics.